Sales Forecasting

The Sales forecasting functionality allows you to plan demand for products over a defined future period. It combines AI-assisted forecast generation with manual input, providing a flexible tool for demand planning.

Sales forecasting allows:

• Creating AI-assisted demand forecasts for products based on historical customer order data.
• Reviewing forecast data grouped by configurable time periods.
• Comparing forecasted quantities with previous periods and previous year values.
• Linking forecasts to the Master Production Schedule (MPS) for production and procurement planning.

Jump to:

1. Enabling sales forecasting
2. User access rights for sales forecasting
3. General sales forecasting process

Enabling sales forecasting

This functionality can be turned on at Settings -> System Settings -> Enterprise Functions -> Sales forecasting.

The following software sections become available:

• The CRM -> Sales forecasting page, where it is possible to create and manage sales forecasts.
• The Sales forecast row in the Production Planning -> MPS view, where it is possible to link a sales forecast to a product for production and procurement planning.

User access rights for sales forecasting

To work with sales forecasts, the user must have appropriate rights set at Settings -> Human Resources -> Users -> Rights of individual user.

Please note that even without the Read right for Sales forecasting, the user can see an item's forecast values in the MPS tab, provided they have the right to access MPS.

General sales forecasting process

Working with a sales forecast takes place in several steps:

1. Create a sales forecast by selecting the products and defining the forecast horizon.
2. Run the AI forecast to automatically generate demand predictions based on historical customer order data.
   1. If a product does not have enough historical data, forecast values can be entered manually.
3. Review and adjust the forecast values in the forecast input table, using the Detailed view to compare with actuals and previous year data.
4. Review aggregated data in the Forecast overview section, using configurable period groupings.
5. Link the forecast to the Master Production Schedule (MPS) to use the forecast values for production and procurement planning.